2016 BloodList: See the Year’s Best Horror Screenplays, Pilots and Shorts

2016 BloodList: See the Year’s Best Horror Screenplays, Pilots and Shorts

Joe Russo‘s “Soul Mates” and Natalie Hanson’s “Safe and Sound” are among the projects included on horror genre guru Kailey Marsh’s2016 BloodList of the most-liked screenplays and pilots in horror, thriller, dark comedy and sci-fi.

The seventh annual list, announced Wednesday and based on a survey of 74 industry executives, was topped by “Orb,” written by Steve Desmond and Michael Sherman.

This is also the first year of #FreshBloodSelects, which sheds light on new writers and scripts in Hollywood. There were 386 submissions.

The #FreshBloodSelects includes feature thriller “An October Wedding,” written by Nate Ruegger, and Rachel Woolley’s horror feature, “Fraud is Dead.”

Marsh is a rising manager-producer who compiles the BloodList each year and has seen its profile soar over the last eight years. Screenplays previously featured on the BloodList include “Arrival,” “Autopsy of Jane Doe,” “The Shallows” and “The Boy Next Door,” which starred Jennifer Lopez.

Title: “ORB”Writer: Steve Desmond & Michael ShermanLogline: Inspired by actual events from a phenomenon that occurred in 1974, the story follows a young married couple who discover a mysterious metallic orb in the woods near their house following a meteor shower. While the unusual object dazzles the couple by exhibiting some awe-inspiring properties, its true purpose is revealed to be far more sinister than they could ever imagine.Genre: Sci-fi Horror

Title: “Man Alive”Writer: Joe GreenbergLogline: After an alien invasion takes over the minds of humankind, one survivor known as “Man” must make peace with this alien to fight a greater evil.Genre: Sci-Fi, Horror

Title: “Severance” (Pilot)Writer: Daniel EricksonLogline: Data analyst Mark Scout heads up a team of pencil-pushers, each of whom has had their memories surgically split between work and home life. After a colleague goes missing, Mark begins to see the company’s dangerous secret agenda, and must try to contact his “outside” self to help take them down forever.Genre: Sci-Fi Mystery/Thriller

Title: “The Watcher”Writer: Zack FordLogline: When a couple living in a Brooklyn high-rise think that a man in the building across the street is looking through their window, their paranoia grows until they begin to suspect he might actually be a killer at large who the news refers to as The Headhunter.Genre: Horror

Title: “Soul Mates”Writer: Chris LaMont & Joe RussoLogline: Based on a short story by Frankie Mendoza, Gunnar Baroldy and JJ Chalupnik. The film is about two unsuspecting strangers who find themselves participants in a twisted new dating service that forces two singles inside a nightmarish maze designed to help them find their Soul Mate – or die trying.Genre: Horror/Thriller

Title: “I Think We’re Alone Now”Writer: Mike MakowskyLogline: The apocalypse proves a blessing in disguise for one lucky recluse — until a second survivor arrives with the threat of companionship.Genre: Sci-Fi Dark Comedy

Title: “The Live Ones”Writer: Alex CarlLogline: A San Francisco attorney inherits a house in upstate New York that contains the dark secrets of the family she never knew. Tonally like the SKELETON KEY, but with haunted mannequins.Genre: Horror

Title: “Maximum King”Writer: Shay HattenLogline: An outlandish, surreal imagining of how in 1985, Stephen King wrote and directed his horror classic MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE.Genre: Dark Comedy

Title: “Summer of ’84”Writers: Matt Leslie & Stephen J. SmithLogline:It’s the summer of 1984, the perfect time to be 14 years old and free. But when neighborhood conspiracy theorist Davey Armstrong begins to suspect his police officer neighbor might be the serial killer all over the local news, he and his three best friends begin an investigation that soon turns dangerous.Genre: Thriller, Suspense, Horror, Coming-of-Age

Title: “Safe and Sound”Writer: Natalie HansonLogline: A new mother hears voices through her baby monitor, discovering a secret that threatens to destroy her.Genre: Horror

2016 Fresh Blood Selects

Project Name: “A Lot of Blood” (Feature)Writer(s): Justin Di SandroLogline: After two friends leave the bar after a night of drinking, they discover their car missing from the parking lot, an RV in its place, and a woman trapped inside.Genre(s): Horror, Thriller

Project Name: “An October Wedding” (Feature)Writer(s) Name: Nate RueggerGenre(s): ThrillerLogline: A runaway comes home for her sister’s wedding only to suspect that one of the guests is a killer who knows her darkest secret: she, and everyone in her family, is a witch.

Project Name: “Atrophy” (Feature)Writer(s): Jennifer Helen CoatesGenre(s): ThrillerLogline: Centers on a NYPD detective who struggles with black periods in her memory. With this, she soon discovers that the prime suspect in a serial killer case is herself.

Project Name: “The Bridge Partner” (Short Film)Writer(s): Gabriel Olson, based on the short story by Peter S. BeagleGenre(s): Horror, ThrillerLogline: A mousey housewife hoping to make friends at her bridge club is paired with a mysterious newcomer she comes to think is trying to kill her.

Project Name: “The Bullshit Boys” (Feature)Writer(s): Nick Shepherd & Toni ShepherdGenre(s): HorrorLogline: A young man and his buddies host a local vodcast called ‘The Bullshit Boys’, where they debunk or as they’d say, “call shit”, on local folklore. Only this time, they’ve opened a bridge between our world and the realm of nightmares.

Project Name: “Fraud is Dead” (Feature)Writer(s): Rachel WoolleyGenre(s): HorrorLogline: In 1870, famous American mediums, “The Fox Sisters”, admit their fraud and publicly deny the existence of spirits, forcing them to rely only on each other (and a mixed bag of parlor tricks) when, while fleeing the country by ship, they’re suddenly terrorized by vengeful ghosts.

Project Name: “Goldie” (Feature)Writer(s) Name: Brett MartinGenre(s): Horror, ThrillerLogline: A female serial killer with a penchant for porridge stalks a true crime author she wants to write her life story. The most famous home invader in fairy tale history has never gotten her own movie, until now. But my Goldie doesn’t run away when the “bears” come home and if you’re not just right for her, you’re dead.

Project Name: “Let the Devil Out” (Feature)Writer(s): Ryan JacksonGenre(s): Horror, Sci-Fi, Dark ComedyLogline: A containment team boards an offshore drilling platform in the South Pacific after an oil spill, only to discover it’s a black site developing experimental weapons thats crew has been wiped out by a bio engineered contagion – one that causes those it infects heads to spontaneously explode. “Scanners” on an oil rig.

Project Name: “Skin & Bones” (Pilot)Writer(s): Paul PortisGenre(s): Horror, Thriller, Dark ComedyLogline: 16 year old Reagan is placed in a mental institution after her newborn son is stolen by a vengeful witch on Halloween night and dragged to the pits of hell. Along with the help of her misfit friends, Reagan will have to prove her sanity while battling a demonic cult, dark forces and a coven of Witches, stopping at nothing to get her son back!

Project Name: “The Stricken” (Feature)Writer(s): Rob PilkingtonGenre(s): HorrorLogline: When an unpopular young sheriff discovers an abandoned train stalled, robbed, and teaming with leprous undead, he must pursue the charismatic bandit who carries both the stolen loot and a deadly germ.

Project Name: “24/7 Xpress Cleaning” (Pilot)Writer(s): Raul de MiguelGenre(s): Thriller, Dark ComedyLogline: A perpetually unemployed guy who faints at the sight of blood and his ex-con sister-in-law start a cleaning business, but an unexpected twist leads them to become the new cleanup crew for the local mob.

Project Name: “The 49th Day” (Feature)Writer(s): Craig PetersGenre(s): HorrorLogline: A young girl’s imaginary friend starts killing her family off one by one. But what can you do when you’re only nine and Death wants to play?